
THEORY 



■6/ 



OF THK 



GULF STREAM, 



SAMUEL HOLLINGSWORTH. 



PHI LAD ELPHIA : 
QORBDTT & CLARK80N PRINTERS, NO. 142 CHESTNUT STREET, ABOVE SIXTH. 

1856. 



THEORY 



OP THS 



GULF STREA 



EXPLAINED CHIEFLY THROUGH THE AGENCY OF 



^^'1 



ffllar ®$at, 



BY 



SAMUEL HOLLINGSWORTH. 



PHIL AD ELPHIA : 
GORBDTT & CLAEKSON PKIHTERS, NO. 142 CHESTNUT STREET, ABOVE SIXTH. 

1856. 



THE GULF STREAM. 



Two very interesting lectures have recently been delivered 
before the American Geographical and Statistical Society, by 
Professor Bache and Lieut. Bent, U. S. N., the former upon 
the Atlantic Gulf Stream, and the latter upon the Equatorial 
Stream of the Pacific Ocean. The following extracts are 
taken from the New York Herald, as reported 19th and 25th 
of January last ; they are chiefly portions which relate to the 
theory of these great currents ; for the statistical parts, and 
other very interesting information, we refer to the lectures as 
fully reported. 

" The great part ^^hich the heat of the sun plays in disturbing the equili- 
brium of the surface of our globe is well understood. AVherever he shines 
upon the surface, the air resting upon it is set in motion, so that the circle 
of the sun's illumination as it advances over the earth is a circle of 
disturbance. 

These currents of air carry the waters forward with them from east to 
west, and when they meet the land great currents are produced, and taking 
their direction from the land cai-ry the waters of the equatorial regions to 
the north and south temperate seas, to be returned in those great 
systems of circulation, some of which have long been knov/n to navigators 
and geographers, and others of which remain yet imperfectly developed 
{Carte Tiieoinale des Globe, par H. Nicolet — Project Dierne Carte des 
Coiira.nt Mains, par M. Duperry : Library Smithsonian Institute. Two 
of the most important of these — one of the North Atlantic and the other 
of the North Pacific — -will form the subjects to be brought before you on 
successive evenings, the one the American Gulf Stream, and the other the 
Asiatic Stream — the first making, as is most probable, the circuit of the 
Gulf of Mexico, its name indicating the view of Geograi)hers as to its 
origin, issuing through the Straits of Florida, gradually leaving our coast, 



-i 

and seeking that of Euvope, the main stream to return by a counter 
current to the tropical regions in which it was first produced, the branches 
recognizable in the Northern Seas of both America and Europe. The 
second, as traced by Lieut. Bent, from the notes of our Jai)an Expedition 
under Commodore Perry, deflected to the north by the shores of Formosa, 
passing along the coast to the northward and eastward, and leaving it 
at the projecting portion of the Coast of Japan, as our stream does the 
Coast of North Carolina at Hatteras. 

The first delineation of wdiich I have any knowledge, though it is 
altogether probable that there were attempts made to show difl'ercut parts 
of it at an earlier date, was that made by Dr. Franklin, in 1769-70, from 
the information communicated by Captain Folger, of Nantucket, com- 
manding a whaling vessel from that port. The details are so interesting, 
that I insert it as a remarkable instance of practical sagacity on the part 
of the fisherman and the philosopher : — 

" Vessels are sometimes retarded and sometimes forwarded in their 
voyages, by currents at sea, which are often not perceived. About the 
year 1769-70, there was an application made to the Board of Customs at 
Boston, to the Lords of the Treasury in London, complaining that the 
packets between Falmouth and New York, were generally a fortnight 
longer in their passages than merchant ships from London to Rhode 
Island, and proposing, instead of New York, that for the future they should 
be ordered to Newport. Being then concerned in the management of the 
American Post Office, I happened to be consulted on the occasion : and 
it appearing strange to me that there should be such a difference between 
two places scarce a day's run assunder, especially when the merchant 
ships are generally deeper laden, and more weakly manned than the 
packets, and had from London the whole length of the river and channel 
to run before they left the land of England, while the packets had only 
to go from Falmouth, I could not but think the fact misunderstood or 
misrepresented. There happened then to be in London a Nantucket sea 
captain of my acquaintance, to w^hom I communicated the affair. He 
told me he believed the fact to be true ; but the difference was owing to 
this, that the Rhode Island captains were acquainted with the Grulf 
Stream, which those of the English packets were not. ' We are well 
acquainted with that stream,' said he, 'because in our pursuit of whales, 
which keep near the sides of it, but are not to be met with in it, we run 
down along the sides, and frequently cross it to change our side ■ and, in 
crossing it, have sometimes met and spoke with those packets, who were 
in the midst of it, and stemming it. We have informed them that they 
were stemming a current that was against them to the value of three miles 
an hour, and advised them to cross it and get out of it ; but they were 
too wise to be counselled by simple American fishermen. When the winds 
are light,' he added, ' they are carried back by the current more than they 
are forwarded by the wind ; and if the wind be good, the subtraction of 
seventy miles a day from their course is of some importance.' I then 
observed that it was a pity no notice was taken of this current upon the 
charts, and requested him to mark it out for me, which he readily com- 
plied with, adding directions for avoiding it in sailing from Europe to 
North America. I procured it to be engraved, by order from the General 
Post Office on the old chart of the Atlantic, at Mount & Page's, 



Tower Hill, and copies were sent to Falmouth for the captains of the 
packets, who slighted it ; however, it has since been printed in France, 
of which edition I hereto annex a copy. 

" This stream is probably generated by the great accumulation of water 
on the eastern coast of America between the tropics, by the trade-winds 
which constantly blow there. It is known that a large stream of water, 
ten miles broad, and generally only three feet deep, has by a strong wind, 
had its water driven to one side and sustained, so as to become six 
feet deep, v^'hile the windward side was laid dry. This may give some 
idea of the quantity heaped upon the American coast, and the reason of 
its running down in a strong current through the Islands into the Bay of 
Mexico, and from thence issuing through the Gulf of Florida,and proceeding 
along the Coast to the Banks of Newfoundland, where it turns off" towards, 
and runs down through, the Western Islands. Having since crossed the 
Stream several times in passing between America and Europe, I have been 
attentive to sundry circumstances relating to it, by which to know when 
one is in it; and, beside the Gulf weed with which it is interspersed, I find 
that it is always warmer than the sea each side of it, and that it does not 
sparkle in the night. I annex hereto the observations, made with the 
thermometer in two voyages, and may possibly add a third. It will 
appear from them that the thermometer may be a useful instrument to 
the navigator, since currents coming from the northward into southern 
seas will probably be found colder than the water of these seas, as the 
currents from southern seas into northern are apt to be warmer." — 
(^American PhUos. Trans., vol. II., Old Series.) 

In April, 1854, the difference of temperature in 150 miles nearly off the 
Balize, was ten degrees. The temperature of the outer water was 78° 
nearly that of the Gulf Stream at this season of the year. 

We are now prepared to collect and group on a chart chiefly thermal, 
the facts relating to the Gulf Stream. I shall introduce what is known 
in a general way of its current incidentally. 

Passing by the Floi'ida Keys, the Stream v^-as found last summer to have 
a tempf rature of 84°. This is 8° above the mean temperature of the 
month of June at Key West, as given in the Surgeon General's Eeport. 

The currrent here has little strength — enough, however, to make vessels 
seek its aid in working to leeward from Key West, and enough there 
to cause stearaei's to seek it in their course by standing out towards the 
middle of the passage between the Florida Keys and Cuba. 

Issuing through the Straits of Florida and passing between the eastern 
coast of the Peninsula and the Bahamas, it is turned northward by the 
land which confines and directs it The direction of the stream here is 
nearly nortli by a little west of north. Its velocity varies from three to 
five nautical miles per hour, and its summer temperature (July and August), 
at fifteen fathoms below the surface, is about — °, varying with the season. 
This is an interesting section. It shows, instead of an unfathomable 
Gulf, worn by the rushing waters of this great stream, quite a moderately 
deep passage, with two streams in it — one passing rapidly to the north, 
and^the other slowly to the south, one unmistakably tropical, the other as 
unmistakiil>ly Polar in its origin — the lower saving the bottom of the sea 
from the great attrition assumed for it by theorists. 

Follow now the course of the Stream as it bends into the bight between 



i; 

Cape Florida aud Cape HaLteras. Recollect that each one of these 
curves is the result of raaTiy data, all independent ; that the cold wall, 
the axis, the second minimum, and second warm streams are four independent 
sets of observations ; that the positions in each section, and in the several 
sections, are results of independent observations ; that the results confirm 
each other remarkably, not only in passing from the surface to the greatest 
depths, but from position to position, and from section to section. The 
stream off Cape Canaveral has a northwardly set, and between that Cape 
and St. Augustine, begins to bend to the eastward of north. The stream 
between St. Augustine and Hatteras takes the general direction of the 
coast, making 5° of easting in b'^ of northing, curves to the northward, 
and then runs eastward so as to make about B° of easting, in 3° of 
northing. In the latitude of 38°, between Cape Charles and Cape 
Henlopen. it turns quite eastwardly, having then a velocity of only between 
one and two miles an hour. 

That this general sweep follows the coast vin "ler water, (the coast line), 
the curve of one hundred fathoms, and the hill ranges of Mafnt, Craven 
and Sands, seem in a general way fully to establish. That it may be 
modified by other circumstances is not denied, but merely that is not de- 
termined by them. 

The after progress of this mighty stream and of its branches remain yet 
to be traced as this part has been, and the variations from the general 
conditions presented by oha;iges of seasons, winds and storms. 

These, we may hope, unless the success which has hitherto attended 
these labors be for the future denied them, accurately to determine, and 
perhaps at some future day to present to your attention." 

"The existence of a northeast current on the coast of Japan was noticed 
by Cook, Kinzenstern and other explorers, and has, of course, not escaped 
the attention of more recent intelligent navigators, but I believe no syste- 
matic series of observations upon it have hitherto been made. 

The Japanese ai-e well aware of its existence, and have given it the 
name of "Kuro-Siwo," or Black Stream, which is undoubtedly derived 
from the deep blue color of its water, when compared with that of the 
adjacent ocean. 

The fountain from which this stream springs is the great equatorial 
current of the Pacific, which in magnitude is in proportion to the vast 
extent of that ocean, when compared with the Atlantic. 

Extending from the Tropic of Cancer, on the north, to Capi'icorn — in 
all probability — on the south, it has a width of near three thousand 
miles ; and with a velocity of from twenty to sixty miles per day, it sweeps 
to the westward in uninterrupted grandeur around three-eighths of the 
circumference of the globe, until diverted by the continent of Asia, and 
split into innumerable streams of the Polynesian Islands, it spreads the 
genial influence of its warmth over regions of the earth, some of wliich — 
now teeming in prolific abundance — would otherwise be but barren wastes. 

One of the most remarkable of these off-shoots is the Kuro-Siwo, or 
Japan Stream, which, separated from the parent current by the Bashee 
Islands and south end of Formosa, in lat. 22° north long., 122° east, 
is deflected to the northward along the east coast of Formosa, where its 



strength and character are as decidedly marked as those of the Gulf 
Stream on the coast of Florida. This northwardly course continues to 
the parallel of 26° north, when it bears off to the northward and east- 
ward, washing the whole southeast coast of Japan as far as the Straits of 
Sangar, and increasing in strength as it advances, until reaching the chain 
of islands to the southward of the Gulf of Yedo, where its maximum 
velocity, as shown by our observations, is 80 miles per day. 

Its average strength from the south end of Formosa to the Straits of 
Sangar is found to be from 35 to 40 miles per twenty-four hours at all 
seasons that we traversed it. 

Near its origin the Kuro-Siwo, like the Gulf Stream, is contracted, and 
is usually confined between Formosa and the Majico-Sima Islands, with a 
width of one hundred miles. But to the northward of this group it 
rapidly expands on its southern limit, and reaches the Lew-Chew and 
Bonin Islands, giving it a width to the northward of the latter of about 
five hundred miles. 

To the eastward of the meridian of 143° east, in latitude 40° north, the 
stream takes a more easterly direction, allowing a cold current to inter- 
vene betweeen it and the southern coast of Yesse, where the thermal 
change in the water is from 16° to 20°; but from the harrassing prevalance 
of fogs during our limited stay in that vicinity, it was impossible to make 
such observations or experiments as to proveconclusively the predominant 
direction of this cold current through the Straits of Sangar, particularly 
as the tide ebbs and flows through them with great rapidity. Yet, from 
what we have, I am inclined to believe that it is a current from the Arctic 
Ocean running counter to the Kuro Siwo, and which passes to the west- 
ward through the Straits of Sangar, down through the Japan Sea, between 
Corea and the Japanese Islands, and feeds the hyperborean current on the 
east coast of China, which flows to the southward through the Formosa 
Channel into the China Sea. For to the westward of a line connecting 
the north end of Formosa and the southwestern extremity of Japan there 
is no flow of tropical waters to the northward, but on the contrary, a cold 
counter current filling the space between the Kuro-Siwo and the coast of 
China, as is distinctly shown by our observations. As far as this cold 
water extends off the coast, the soundings are regular and increase 
gradually in depth, but simultaneously with the increase of temperature 
in the water the plummet falls into a trough similar to the bed of the 
Gulf Stream, as ascertained by the United States Coast Survey. 

In addition to the resemblance in general character between the Gulf 
Stream and Kuro-Siwo, there are other analogies which I shall presently 
mention. Bat in the first place I will call your attention to the chart upon 
which they are traced, to show the striking coincidence in the recurvation, 
not only of these oceanic streams, but also to the general coinci- 
dence in their recurvation with that of the storms of the Northern 
Hemisphere. Mr. Redfield is of the opinion that the recurration of storms 
between the parallels of 20° and 30° north and south latitude in all parts 
of the world, as shown by observation, is but partially dependent upon 
the influence of land, and is "to be ascribed mainly to the mechanical 
gravitation of the atmospheric strata as connected with the rotative and 
orbital movements of the different parts of the earth's surface." (Naval 
Mag., 18SG, p. B18. ) 



In the American Coast Pilot, edition of 1887, pp. 666, 667, Mr. Red- 
field fiirtiiermore says : — "■ The Gulf Siream from Florida to Newfoundland, 
is for the most part imbedded or stratilied upon a current which is setting 
in the opposite dii-ection in its progress from tlie Polar regions. By its 
action, the great stream of drift ice from the Polar Basin is brought within 
the dissolving influence of the Gnlf Stream ; and the Grand Bank itself, 
perhaps, owes its origin to the deposites which have resulted from this pro- 
cess during a long course of ages. The icebergs being carried southv/ard 
by the deeper Polar current, their rapid destruction is here effected by the 
tepid water of the Gulf Stream. These two streams of current, like 
other currents, both atmospheric and aqueous, pursue each its determinate 
course — the Gulf Stream being thrown eastward by the greater rotative 
velocity, which it acquired in latitudes nearest the equator, and the Polar 
current being thrown westward along the shores and soundings of the 
American continent and its contiguous ocean depths, by the tardy rota- 
tion which it derived in higher latitudes. Were the influence of winds 
wholly unfelt upon the ocean, it is probable that the same system would 
still be maintained in all its essential features by the mechanical infliuence 
of the earth's rotation, combined with an unstalale state of equilibrium." 

And Lieut. M. F. Maury, in a paper on the Gulf Stream and currents 
of the sea, read before the National Institute, April 2, 1844, says: "A 
geodetic examination as to the course of the Gulf Stream does not render 
it by any. meaus certain that it is turned aside by the Grand Banks of 
Newfoundland at all, but that in its route from the coast of Georgia as far 
towards the shores of Europe as its path has been distinctly ascertained, 
it describes the arc of a great circle as nearly as may be. Following the 
line of direction given to it after clearing the Straits of Florida, its course 
would be nearly on a great circle passing through the poles of the earth. 
That it should be turned from this, and forced along one inclining more 
to the east, requires after it leaves these Straits, the pressure of a new 
force to give it this eastward tendency ; and have we not precisely such 
a force in the rate at which diff'erent parallels perform their daily rounds 
about their axis ? In consequence of this the stream when it first enters 
the Atlantic from the Gulf, is carried with the earth around its axis at 
the rate of two miles and a half a minute faster towards the east than it 
is when it sweeps by the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. 

" That this explanation, as to its eastward tendency should hold $rood 
a current setting from the north towards the south, should have a west- 
ward tendency, accordingly, and in obedience to the propelling power de- 
rived from the rate at which different parallels are whirled around in 
diurnal motion, we find the current from the north which meets the Gulf 
Stream on the Grand Banks, taking a southwesterly direction as already 
described. It runs down to the Tropics by the side of the Gulf Stream, 
and stretches as far to the west as our shores will allow." 

That this theory of rotative influence, may, or may not be correct, it is 
not my province to discuss, but I was forcibly struck with these coinci- 
dences of recurvation, when the tracks of the Gulf Stream and Kur'o-Siwo, 
together with the paths of hurricanes, were traced upon the same chart ; 
and I have made these quotations to show what hypotheses are entertained 
by some of the eminent men who have given much attention and study to 
the subject ; and from a conviction that they are in some measure at 



9 

least, sustained by the results of our observations upon the Kuro-Siwo, 
foi', notwithstanding the configuration of the eastern shores of the conti- 
nents of America and Asia are undoubtedly the original caui.e of the de- 
flection to the northward, of the whole of the equatorial current of the 
Atlantic, by the Gulf Stream, and of a portion of that of the Pacific by 
the Kuro-Siwo or Japan stream ; yet, were no influences such as Mr. Red- 
field and Lieut. Maury refer to operating upon these streams, would not 
their natural inclination from the inertia of their westward flow be to hug 
the coasts, and wash their whole length to the Arctic Sea, or until that 
inertia was overcome by their friction against the continents? Yet this 
is not the case in either instance, for it has been well established by Mr. 
Bache, in his last address, that a counter current,' flowing to the southward 
and westward, intervenes between the Gulf Stream and the coast of the 
United States, as far as the Peninsula of Florida ; and, as I have before 
stated, as far as our observations extend, they prove conclusively that there 
is a very important counter current intervening between the Kuro-Siwo 
and the main coast of Asia. 

I am not precisely aware of what the thermal change is, in passing into 
or from these cold strata in the Gulf Stream, but those in the Kuro-Siwo 
were indicated by a depression of only a few degrees ^in the water ther- 
mometer, and therefore should more properly be termed cool strata as 
compared with the rest of the stream, for in all instances these strata 
maintain a superior temperature to the atmosphere above them ; and if 
the hyperborean current is, as I have supposed, entirely separated from 
the Kuro-Siwo by its passage through the Straits of Sangar, to the west- 
ward of the Japan Islands, I am inclined to think that there is no counter 
current underlying the Kuro-Siwo, as is the case with the Gulf Stream. 
This, however, can only be determined by experiments with the deep sea 
thermometer, and the usual apparatus for determining submarine currents, 
none of which were made by the expedition, as its special object was of 
primary importance, and all other subjects within the field of our observa- 
tions were necessarily of subordinate consideration, and were obliged to 
be made as oppoi'tunity and the ordinary facilities of our situation would 
permit. Lieut. M, F, Maury says, that " the maximum temperature of 
the Gulf Stream is 86°, or about 10° above the ocean temperature due to 
the latitude." This maximum temperature coincides with that of Kuro- 
Siwo, as shown by the daily means of our observations, but the difference 
between the temperature of the Kuro-Siwo and the "ocean temperature 
due to the latitude," is, by the ^aol^ observations, shown to be greater, 
amounting on an average to abou^;ip°. 

The influence of Kuro-Siwo u^|fi^Ue climate of Japan .and the west 
coast of North America, is as jmjg^Bf^'expected, as striking, as that of 
the Gulf Stream on the coasts^oorclering the North Atlantic. From the 
insular position of Japan, wifh the intervening sea between it and the 
continent of Asia, it has a. moi;^e^,equabl^. climate -than we enjoy in the 
United States; and since the: countei^current of the Kuro-Siwo does not 
make its appearance on the eaefSrn shores of the islands, south of the 
Straits of Sangar, and as these' islands, in their geographical position, 
have a more eastwardly direction than our coast, the Kuro-Siwo, unlike 
the Gulf Stream, sweeps close along this shore, giving a milder climate 
of that portion of the empire 'than is enjoyed in corresponding latitudes in 
the United States. 



10 

The softening influence of the Kuro-Siwo is felt on the coasts of Oregon 
and California, but in a less degree, perhaps, than that of the Gulf Stream 
on the coasts of Europe, owing to the greater width of the Pacific Ocean 
over the Atlantic. 

' Still, the winters are so mild in Puget's Sound, in latitude 48° north, 
that snow rarely falls there, and the inhabitants are never enabled to fill 
their ice houses for the summer ; and vessels trading to Petropaulowski 
and the coast of Kamtskatka, when becoming unwieldy from accumulation 
of ice on their hulls and rigging, run over to a higher latitude on the 
American coast and thaw out, in the same manner that vessels frozen up 
on our own coast, retreat again into the Gulf Stream until favored by an 
easterly wind. 

I 

The first delineation of the Gulf Stream was made by Dr. 
Franklin, as Prof. Bache believes, in 1770; the cause of the 
current being attributed by him to the trade-winds. The 
trade winds are currents of air ; and it is now generally 
acknowledged that heat is the chief cause of atmospheric 
currents. From this fact, we have been led to inquire 
whether — while admitting theii? important influence in acce- 
lerating the flow of the water currents. — the trade-winds might 
not be merely secondary to Solar heat as the primary moving 
cause of both. 

The great Equatorial current, " extending from the tropic 
of Cancer on the north, to Capricorn in all probability on the 
south, has a width of near three thousand miles ; and with a 
velocity of from twenty to sixty miles per day, it sweeps to 
the westward in uninterrupted grandeur around three.-eights 
of the circumference of the globe." 

Now, this current — over which the sun travels in his an- 
nual course — is a heated current ; and caused, we believe, in 
the following manner. 

The water of the ocean, at the ' equator and within the 
tropics, is heated not only at its surface, by the surrounding 
atmosphere, but is also heated at its bottom. This heat is 
derived from the earth, its teipperature being elevated by the 
sun's rays passing through the wa-ter. The water thus heated 
by its contact with the earth, rises from its depths below to 
the surface, where it attains the temperature of 87° Fahr. 



11 

The vacuum formed by the rising water is supplied at the 
bottom by the water flowing to it from the colder regions. 

This equatorial surface current takes a westerly direction 
in consequence of 'the earth's diurnal motion, and proceeds 
along the north coast of South America to the Gulf of Mexico, 
where meeting with the North American Continent, it receives 
a direction northeast along the coast line to the Grand Banks 
of Newfoundland, and afterwards more easterly, as presently 
will be described. 

This immense body of surface water, which Prof. Bache 
found to differ in temperature widely on the upper and under 
portions, and consequently in density, loses gradually its heat 
as its progresses northward, until it meets with water colder 
than itself, which reduces it to 40°, (at which point water is 
heavier than at any temperature above or below it), in this 
manner meeting with water colder, and consequently lighter 
than itself, it becomes an under current to the great Polar 
current flowing in an opposite direction above it. Previous 
to their meeting on the Grand Banks, the course of the equa- 
torial or parent stream would be, from the direction given to 
it by the coast line, nearly east-northeast. The course of the 
Polar current would be, from the direction given to it by the 
east coast of Greenland, nearly southwest, as is evident on 
reference to the charts of the Ocean currents. 

At the point of meeting of the two opposing currents, an 
important change takes place in the direction of their line of 
motion, resulting from the operation of two laws ; the law of 
opposing forces, and the law which governs water at the 
temperature of 40°. 

The Equatorial current having a different density and 
velocity in its upper and lower portions, would, under these 
conditions, be separated into two branches on meeting with 
the Polar current ; at the point of bifurcation, the upper 
portion being' at a temperature above 4€°, and consequently 
lighter, would become deflected still more to the eastward^ 
Sind constitute in this branch the Gulf Stream proper ; while 



12 

the lower portion and main branch being at 40°, the point of 
greatest density, and consequently heavier, would become an 
under current to the one above it, proceeding onward to its 
destination at the Pole: 

Turning now to the Polar current, flowing southward, we 
have only to apply the same laws to understand its course ; 
the upper portion on becoming elevated above the tempera- 
ture of 40°, and consequently lighter, would, on m.eeting with 
the upper portion of the parent current, become deflected 
still more to the westward, and constitute in this branch the 
inshore, or counter current ; while the lower portion, and 
main branch, being at the point of greatest density, and con- 
sequently heavier, w^onld become an under current to the 
parent stream above it, and proceed onward to its destination 
at the Tropics. 

And we might add, as an assisting cause for the counter cur- 
rent flowing between the Gulf Stream and theS coast, the in- 
fluence of the great rivers, which pour out their waters as 
surface currents against the stream. 

In the rotary theory quoted in the lectureabove, it is said 
alluding to the Gulf Stream : " Following the line of direc- 
tion given to it, after clearing the Straits of Florida, its 
course would be nearly a great circle passing thi ough the 
poles of the earth. That it should be turned from this, 
and forced along one inclining more to the east, requires after 
it leaves these Straits, the pressure of a new force, to give it 
this eastward tendency." Now, that it should be turned from 
the course of a great circle passing through the poles of the 
earth and forced along another, inclining more to the east, 
would seem to imply that it did not pass to the pole at all; 
but as this cannot be its meaning, consistently with the exist- 
ence of a Polar current, it is added, " That this explanation 
as to its eastward tendency should hold good, a current 
setting from the north towards the south should have a west- 
ward tendency," we infer, therefore, the meaning to^be, that 
a part only passes to the east, and another part to the pole ; 



if this be so, we can have no objection, as it would be so far 
our own theory ; if, however, the language does not warrant 
the construction that the stream is divided into two branches, 
one going to the east, and the other to the north, then there 
would seem to be a discrepancy somewhere. Lieut. Bent 
says : — That this theory of rotative influence, may, or may 
not be correct, it is not his province to discuss, and adds, that 
it is in some measure, at least, sustained by their observa- 
tions upon the Japan Stream. And Capt. AVilkes, in a 
valuable work recently published upon the winds, &c., has 
shoAvn it to be not at all applicable to atmospheric currents, 
however it may be to vapour and water currents. 

Such would seem to be the natural results of the law^s 
we have mentioned which govern the two opposing streams ; 
and thus would be completed the circulation of these magni- 
ficent currents — a system of imposing grandeur. 

The following diagram is a section of the earth's surface, 
including the North Pole and the Equator, and is intended to 
represent the flow of the Polar and Equatorial currents. 




&^ 



a. Equator, place of be^nning. 6. Water rises to surface, c. Equatorial north surface current- d. 
Meeting of the waters, e. Continuation of the equatorial north surface current, now become the north 
polar under current. /. Pole. g. Polar south surface current, h. Continuation.of the polar south 
•urfaee current, now hecome the equatorial under current to the place of heginning a. j. Bottom of sex 



1-1 • 

Lieut. Bent, in his lecture, speaks of the Japan Stream as 
being identical almost with the Gulf Stream : its equatorial and 
counter currents are the same ; one material difference, how- 
ever, exists, there is no polar surface current flowing southward 
through Behring's Straits ; on the contrary, there is a slight 
surface current flowing north, and there is in all probability 
no under current at all flowing southward from the Pole ; for 
such would reverse the law of temperature, as we find it in 
the North Atlantic ; how then is this anomaly to be accounted 
for '? Capt. Cook remarks of Behring's Straits : " It is formed 
in its narrowest part by two remarkable head-lands, the dis- 
tance between these two points is about thirty-six miles. The 
water has an equal but not great depth ; on both sides of the 
Straits the soundings are the same at the same distance from 
the shore, that near the land he never found more than 23 
fathoms, and no where more than 30 fathoms ; there are a 
few small islands scattered here and there along the Strait, 
and one of some size — St. Lawrence, or Clerk's Island — lies 
at a short distance south from its entrance ; by the end of 
August, the thermometer sinks to the freezing point, and 
north of the two Capes, there is always a store of ice, 
which the heat of summer is quite powerless to disperse. It 
need scarcely be added, that the Strait is frozen over every 
winter." {McCulJocKs Geo. Die.)— (Cook's Third Voy. II., 
page 457.) 

We think this establishes the fact, that there is no adequate 
passage through the Straits ; it is both too narrow and too 
much obstructed ; it is therefore natural to infer that the Sea 
or Gulf of Kamstcatka is the terminus of circulation for the 
Great Pacific Stream ; and as the climate and waters south 
of the Straits, comprised within this basin, are comparatively 
mild, in consequence of the warmth imparted by the Equato- 
rial Stream, may we not reasonably infer a like resemblance 
at the Polar basin of the North Atlantic, and find therein a 
confirmation, if need be, of the recent great discovery by Dr^ 
Kane, of an Open Polar Sea. 



15 

The design of this great system of circulation is apparent in 
the ameliorating influences which the warm currents dispense 
over regions in the higher temperate and frigid zones, which 
otherwise would be but barren and inhospitable wastes. 

And within the Tr6pics, where if calms were of any fre- 
quency, the heat would be destructive to all life, the great 
design is also apparent in the refreshing influences which the 
constant circulation of the winds and waters dispense, exhibit- 
ing in all alike, the wonderful wisdom and power by which 
the whole is governed. 



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